Realistic expectations for muscle growth

Earlier today Megan made a great post about being patient with fat loss and I just want to extend that to make a similar point about muscle gain.

Consider the possible expectations below for muscle gains based on years of training:

Males
Year 1 – 20-25lbs
Year 2 – 10-12lbs
Year 3 – 5-6lbs

Females
Year 1 – 10-12lbs
Year 2 – 5-6 lbs
Year 3 – 2.5-3lbs

If you look at this, you’ll clearly see that at the best of times muscle gain may proceed at a rate of just over 2 pounds per month for males and 1 pound per month for females.

But by the third year it can slow down to be around 1/2 pound of muscle per month for males and 1/4 pound of muscle per month for females. And this assumes ideal conditions of being in a caloric surplus, training hard, getting enough sleep, and so on.

The point here is that muscle gain is SLOW. And when the building phase is done you’ll generally need to diet off any diet off any fat that may have been gained during that time.

As Megan clearly pointed out earlier, you can’t be in a rush. Simply follow your plan day in and day out for an extended period of time and the results will follow.

Great physiques are built over months and years not days and weeks.